ATI Radeon 9600 at BB Online for $94.99

[synack]

If anyone wants to grab the BF Radeon deal it is online for $94.99 - $25 MIR. I added it to my cart and had no problem. Did not continue with checkout since I didn't want the card. Free Shipping and Handling

Screenshot of cart:
http://www.villagephotos.com/viewpubimage.asp?id_=6619882&selected=634292

 

[J1600B]

Yep I ordered one. Checked last night and it wasn't available online. The lines were so freakin long I didn't even bother in store. Now the woman will have a decent video card for her computer.

 

[pxc]

d'oh I just got back from Fry's. The 9600 online is sold out already.

 

[Salvador]

Does anyone know when they put it online?

Sal

 

[b1k]

I managed to get one, it didn't last long after the post. I ordered mine, reloaded the link and it said out of stock.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

sold out

 

[katana2k3]

so it ake it this card is good and hot?

 

[teklord]

I was at BB at 6:10am and they were sold out of most of the good stuff.

So I had my mom jump online at 7:15am EST. Not yet available.
8:15am purchased.
Got home around 9:30am.. sold out.

 

[PCPETE]

can you pricematch this with any other retailers or special order? I saw staples has this card in stock!

 

[Pelochas]

does anyone knows that the 960 radeon same with a free copy of half life 2. i clearly saw the label on the shelf on Best Buy in writing about the free half life 2 game with the purchase of the 9600 radeon but it was handwritten. i completely forgot about it until i checkout of best buy an did not bother on how to get teh free game since there is nothing on the box or the receipts i have about it. does any one know hwo to get it. im going back to best buy and see what is the deal, because i know for a fact that the 9800 did come with a free game and its actually label outside the box but not the 9600. let me know, thanks

 

[AMDBOY]

Better check ATI's website.It will have info for you. I bought 2 9600's recently(1 was pro @ CrapUsa) and neither had the coupon although the CrapUsa ad clearly showed a box in the ad with the sticker on the front of the box.As usual, CSR's at CrapUsa were not helpful. Actually even rude.Good luck.

 

[yukichigai]

The free HL2 deal is for any new Radeon card, excluding the 9600 non-pro. You can try submitting your serial number via the deal page on Valve's website, (search for "HL2" in the forums for the thread with the link) but chances are it won't pan out.

And even though nobody asked, as far as overclocking these things go I'm having mixed results. I haven't really hit any walls I'd care to run up against on core speed yet, but the memory speed hits about 234 MHz before I start detecting artifacting and other glitches. Certainly not up to Pro speed (Pro would be 310~325 or so) but at least it can be OC'd. Serial number on it is 180335xxxxxx-xx, if it helps.

Enjoy.

 

[ww4397]

Just as a data point, I got one of these at BB on BF thinking I was going to replace my Ti4200. However, after running 3DMark2001SE and 3DMark03 on both cards, I think I'm taking the 9600 back.

Here are the results:

ATI 9600
3DMark2001SE 9,400
3DMark03 2,600

PNY Ti4200
3DMark2001SE 13,000
3DMark03 1,600

I guess it boils down to this: the Ti4200 is a pretty high end DX8 card vs. a middle of the road DX9 (and also a middle of the road DX8) 9600 card.

Is it worth the 70 bucks?

 

[Jmman]

I am glad I bought the 5600 ultra at Compusa for $99 after reading this post. I scored 14,000 in 3dmark 2001 and almost 4000 in 3dmark 2003.....

 

[Krk3561]

ww4397, did you make sure to clean out all traces of the nvidia drivers? If you dont do that it can effect performance alot sometimes.

 

[ww4397]

Originally posted by: Krk3561
ww4397, did you make sure to clean out all traces of the nvidia drivers? If you dont do that it can effect performance alot sometimes.

I removed the nVidia drivers via Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. I did not do anything else. Is there more to do?

Thanks.

 

[tooltime]

that is a deal, i need a mid level card for one of our systems

 

[GetSome681]

Originally posted by: ww4397
Just as a data point, I got one of these at BB on BF thinking I was going to replace my Ti4200. However, after running 3DMark2001SE and 3DMark03 on both cards, I think I'm taking the 9600 back.

Here are the results:

ATI 9600
3DMark2001SE 9,400
3DMark03 2,600

PNY Ti4200
3DMark2001SE 13,000
3DMark03 1,600

I guess it boils down to this: the Ti4200 is a pretty high end DX8 card vs. a middle of the road DX9 (and also a middle of the road DX8) 9600 card.

Is it worth the 70 bucks?

Isn't 3dmark03 more dx9 oriented? If that's the case, and more of the newer games will be using dx9 more and more often, then doesn't it make sense to keep the card that performed the best at dx9? which would be the 9600 in 3dmark03?

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Before anyone returns their card, drop me a line. I might buy it from you

 

[pxc]

For comparison only, the 5600 Ultra I picked up yesterday at Fry's gets a score of 3086 in 3DMark03.

I won't bother running 3DMark2001 SE since it's so dependant on CPU and memory speed. Comparing results between cards is only meaningful when the systems are identical or nearly identical.

 

[teKillah]

Speaking of cards, COMPUSA has the ATI 9000 PRO AIW for 99.00 AR, for folks who got on that Chang FUN case from New Egg and were building a HTPC

I picked one up for my case... I hope its a good buy !

 

[ww4397]

Originally posted by: GetSome681


Isn't 3dmark03 more dx9 oriented? If that's the case, and more of the newer games will be using dx9 more and more often, then doesn't it make sense to keep the card that performed the best at dx9? which would be the 9600 in 3dmark03?

Yes, 3Dmark03 is DX9 oriented. The decision to keep the older card may not be the same for everyone. I'm not playing the most recent games. Most of my game playing is with DX8 types of games. Although I suspect that in the future I'll need a DX9 capable card, I just can't justify the $70 to move up to a *mediocre* DX9 card (which, also, is only a mediocre DX8 card). I'll be better off waiting for a good deal on a higher end DX9 card.

 

[Krk3561]

Originally posted by: ww4397

Originally posted by: Krk3561
ww4397, did you make sure to clean out all traces of the nvidia drivers? If you dont do that it can effect performance alot sometimes.

I removed the nVidia drivers via Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. I did not do anything else. Is there more to do?

Thanks.

Yea, theres lots of nasty files that the drivers leave in the registry and such. Theres a program called Nasty File Remover that was made to clean up the stuff left behind by Nvidia drivers. I would also use a freeware program called regcleaner and search for any Nvidia entries in the registry and clean those out.

BTW, the 9600 non-pro maybe a "mediocre" card, but the 9600 Pro is not. My 9500 Pro (about the same, a little better than the 9600 Pro) passes up the Ti 4600 in performance and is well past the 5600 Ultra too

 

[pxc]

Add/remove for 52.xx drivers gets rid of everything, even coolbits if you imported it.

However, Catalyst drivers (even 3.9) do leave junk behind. I know because I've switched several cards in my main system in the last couple of weeks: AIW Radeon 9700 Pro, FX 5700 Ultra, AIW 9700 Pro (again after moving 5700U to HTPC), FX 5900 and now a 9800 non-pro. Searching the system and system32 directories shows several ATI driver files left behind after uninstallation, but no nvidia files left after uninstallation.

BUT, the performance of each card did NOT suffer by only using uninstallation. I know that caused a mess with earlier Catalyst 3.x drivers, but 3.7/3.9 doesn't seem to have the same problem. I've never even had problems just installing newer nvidia drivers right on top of old drivers. nvidia seems pretty careful about file dates and version so that method works, but I do use uninstallation now since nearly all of the drivers now come with a setup.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: GetSome681
Isn't 3dmark03 more dx9 oriented? If that's the case, and more of the newer games will be using dx9 more and more often, then doesn't it make sense to keep the card that performed the best at dx9? which would be the 9600 in 3dmark03?

The ti4200 won't run the dx9 test since it's a dx8 card, so naturally the 9600 will score higher. And as said it depends which games you're looking to play with the card.